John H.W. Kasich: “Read my lips. No new taxes” (Promise not applicable to Ohio businesses)

But then again, President Bush at least waited until AFTER the election before he admitted he’d break his no new taxes pledge. Kasich did it Saturday some 17 days before Early Voting.

Notice what else is missing from Kasich in Saturday’s Dispatch? Not only does he admit that he’s willing to consider abolishing tax expenditures (targeted tax cuts) to balance the budget, but there’s no mention by Kasich of his proposal to repeal Ohio’s income and estate taxes. Only Governor Strickland brought it up.

The realities of, you know, having to govern are finally starting to sink in for Kasich just as it did with then Vice-President Bush. Just like his radical income tax plan, Kasich is starting to realize that it’s highly unlikely, if not downright impossible, that he will be able to get a budget passed that does not, on some level, increase Ohio’s revenues in what some (like his own Jon Keeling) would call a tax hike.

But Kasich is trying to have it both ways. He’s trying to be elected as if he’s stronger on taxes than a Governor who ushered in the largest tax cut in Ohio history, enacted a massive increase in the homestead exemption, and supported countless other targeted tax cuts for businesses (he’s not) while trying to find some wiggle room in the rhetorical trap he himself was willing to walk into because he knew Governor Strickland would not. But just like his radical income tax repeal, Kasich’s willingness to sign a tax pledge for pure political reasons shows a mind that acts recklessly and rashly out of blind ideological devotion only to then realize how misguided those acts were. This in no way reminds people of another Bush that Kasich, quite accurately, called his “soul brother.”

Is it better to have signed a pledge of no new taxes and not meant it than it is to not have signed one at all? John Kasich is hoping Ohio voters say, yes, it is.